The OUC website has a new look … new features … and new functionality as we move into the new Content Management System (CMS) developed for CU System offices. Among the highlights:

We’ve redesigned our high-level navigation, using website analytics to determine faster, easier paths to the pages you visit (and search for!) the most. So: Training is now separated from FinProHelp and offers an efficient drop-down list to speed you to the instructions you want. The Procedures tab requires fewer clicks to open up the Accounting Handbook and University Fiscal Procedures. Events let you take in, at a glance, the schedule of OUC activities, such as Town Halls and Controller Meetings (and soon will identify FIN Upgrade meetings/informational functions as well).

Cognos Reporting System information is easier to find. Hover over the Reporting navigation tab and you’ll have the option to go straight to Carl’s popular resource, the m-Fin blog. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for the RSS feed to get his reporting news delivered straight to your inbox. (You can also subscribe to the regular OUC News blog – look for the icon at the top of each news page.)

We’ve also reorganized the Finance web page to present more logical groupings of (and labels for) Accounting Services and Finance System information.

Our focus has been to offer you a website that is both appealing and useful. We hope you like what you see. Let us know: Send your feedback to Travis.Chilemi@cu.edu. Or leave a Comment here on the blog. We look forward to hearing from you.

The award was presented at the CUSP 2014 Expo event in June. Award committee members and Expo visitors alike noted the enhanced accountability and transparency resulting from the more effective presentation of financial information. The new HTML format allows improved searchability, mobile and tablet-friendly design, and the addition of color graphs. It also saves substantial annual printing costs.

You can learn all about these innovations on the CUSP website. But we really recommend that you check out the online report itself.

Great news! The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) has recognized our new presentation of CU’s annual financial report information with a 2014 Innovation Award. See the press release →.

Innovation Awards honor the achievement of higher education institutions — community colleges, comprehensive and doctoral institutions, research universities, and small institutions — in the areas of process improvement and resource enhancement. The pool of award contenders this year was particularly large and competitive, notes the association in its award announcement.

The award committee was impressed with our efforts to effectively communicate CU’s audited financial information. The OUC transformed the long-standing PDF version of the Annual Financial Report into a dynamic HTML version … and created a vibrant Illustrated Guide to explain report information to non-accountants and the general public. “We looked all over and couldn’t find anything like it,” noted Jill Yates (NACUBO Award Committee Member and Director, ITS-Business Administration at Southern Illinois University).

The new Annual Financial Report format was developed by Travis Chillemi with the cooperation of our future-embracing external auditor, Paul Niedermuller (CliftonLarsonAllen). The Illustrated Guide was written by Robert Kuehler and edited by Normandy Roden, Jane King, Geoff Barsch, Michele McKinney, and Jay Dedrick (who also named it).